Fabless IC firm MediaTek will likely ship about 15 million smartphone ICs in November, down over 15% sequentially, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.

Shipments of MediaTek's smartphone chips will rebound in December, however, as end-market inventory replenishment for the 2013 Lunar New Year is set to pick up, the report said, citing industry sources. Shipments for December will climb to the more than 18 million units shipped in October.

MediaTek expects to ship more than 40 million smartphone chips in the fourth quarter of 2012, company president Hsieh Ching-chiang said previously. Sales for the fourth quarter are estimated at between NT$28.9 billion (US$992 million) and NT$30.9 billion, compared to the NT$29.47 billion reported for the third quarter.